chalk

[alicornucopia]

In Paraasilan, Esmaar, a pair of roommates are about to break a rule that, compared to the one about running in the corridors or even the one about unlicensed teleportation, is there for a good reason.

In unison, they complete their shared spell.

~~~

with Adarin (Aestrix)

with Ekador (kappa)

with Brilliance (kappa)

with the admin (kappa)

with Teah (kappa)

with Katran (lambda)

with Hall (kappa)

with Joy (kappa)

with Kalinda (Christy Hotwater)

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"Are you being deliberately unhelpful?" wonders Keo.

[ending_of]

"No."

[alicornucopia]

"It appears that billions of Elcenians can now expect to wind up in your domain. I want to know what they will find if they wake up in it instead of being summoned back."

[ending_of]

"I have told you several things about that," she says. "It is not obvious to me what more you want to know. There is a further staff whose job it is to answer the questions of new arrivals; perhaps you would like to visit and speak with one."

[alicornucopia]

"Perhaps. You could also let me look, since you don't seem to have strong opinions about that."

[ending_of]

"The type of information you seek may not be readily available, depending on what exactly you are looking for. I have very little personal contact with residents."

[alicornucopia]

"Maybe I'll visit, then. Where would be a good place to land?"

[ending_of]

"The guide office in the upper base level of the tower."

[alicornucopia]

"Okay."

Keo hangs around until the girls have gotten all their stuff out of the room.

Then they leave, and she goes after them (saying, "If you need anything, think my name clearly and deliberately and as long as I'm in the world at the moment I'll hear it,") and closes the door behind her.

She goes to Kanaat's office. They draw a circle. She stands in it and he sends her to the specified location.

[pythbox]

It's a smallish round room with a few doors, one doorless arch, and a woman with short spiky red hair sitting behind a desk.

She raises her eyebrows at Keo.

"Hello. Where'd you come from?"

[alicornucopia]

"Elcenia. My daughter and her roommate accidentally summoned someone who claims to have added my world to this - afterlife, I suppose - so I'm checking it out. Perhaps you can help."

[pythbox]

"I haven't heard anything about a new world, but I guess I wouldn't, if it's that new," she says. "What exactly did you want my help with?"

[alicornucopia]

"Apparently everyone from Elcenia is in some kind of stasis now, but may start to wake up eventually if we don't get them all summoned out of here quick enough. What will happen if they wake up here?"

[pythbox]

"Well, a judge will look at them and give them papers and send them to this office, and if they're very very good the papers will say Upside and I or some other guide will take them up the elevator and show them how to use the public transit to get to their res, and if they're not, the papers will say Downside and maybe a sentence and their guide will take them down the elevator and show them how to use public transit to get to their res and tell them about torturers and contractors. Most people end up Downside," she says.

[alicornucopia]

"Torturers?" says Keo sharply.

[pythbox]

The guide shrugs. "Yeah. The deal is, if you're bad enough, the judges will sentence you to a few hours of quality time with someone whose job it is to hurt people. A contractor is someone who substitutes for people they don't think deserve their sentences."

[alicornucopia]

"Why is this the system?"

[pythbox]

"Search me," she says with another shrug. "Way before my time. I'm not going to say it's ideal, but the senior judges don't take it well when somebody suggests reforms."

[alicornucopia]

"And this not taking it well manifests how?"

[pythbox]

"Well, last time it happened, the guide just got fired. But she was Upside - the time before that, he was a Downsider and Di sent him home with a stack of sentences for everything on the books he'd done since he was hired. And they didn't take another guide from Downside for the next couple thousand. Years."

[alicornucopia]

Keo chews her lip. "I'm not dead. Can they do anything to me? Any of these unpleasant people."

[pythbox]

"Nobody who's not dead has ever showed up here before," says the guide. "I have no idea what kind of difference it makes. If it doesn't, though, judges can sight you - read your whole history from your perspective at a glance - and torturers can get control on you, which means get your body on magic puppet strings, basically. And that's just the magic stuff. If you walk around Downside, nothing's to stop somebody from walking up and taking your head off with an axe."

[alicornucopia]

Keo thinks about that.

"Is it all humans, here? And does torturer's control work on a mental level or just take over the body directly?"

[pythbox]

"All humans as far as I know. Torturer's control is a body thing, not a mind thing."

[alicornucopia]

"Is that all of the magic stuff? Nobody here has other kinds of magic?"